Scottish Infrastructure

[invergowrie arab]

The A9 is never getting dualled is it?

It has taken about 3 years to do the piece of piss building through fields section  from Stanley to Dukes Pass.

There are bits that will need new bridges over water and others that will need either major rerouting or blasting through cliff faces. 

[GNU_Linux]

Who are they playing?

Inverurie Loco Works

[jamamafegan]

The time it’s taking to duel the A9 is ridiculous. Speaking of road workers, I might sound like a dick here but whenever I’ve passed the A9 Luncarty to Birnam works the road workers usually appear to be standing about and doing very little.

[Detournement]

The economy of administrative tasks that have built up around any construction in the UK is why it is so slow.

No one is actually incentivized to get the job done. The motivation from everyone involved is to keep getting paid for as long as possible. 

Edited September 14, 2020 by Detournement

[Hedgecutter]

10 minutes ago, jamamafegan said:

The time it’s taking to duel the A9 is ridiculous. Speaking of road workers, I might sound like a dick here but whenever I’ve passed the A9 Luncarty to Birnam works the road workers usually appear to be standing about and doing very little.

I always wonder whether they take turns at the job involving the turning of the sign that says 'stop' on one side and 'go' on the other, or whether that's one person's specialist job.   

At the Aberdeen NHS Covid testing facility, there's one guy that sits on a chair in the middle of the road for the whole working day (beside a big yellow sign that says 'diversion -->') to simply tell people how to follow the diversion signs through the industrial estate. Doesn't see half the cars because he's glued to his phone.

Edited September 14, 2020 by Hedgecutter

[Gaz]

58 minutes ago, GNU_Linux said:

Monorail.

Is there a chance the track could bend?

[ICTChris]

There's a motorway being built in Italy that's taken more than 40 years to complete, it's stil going I think.  Depending on who is soliciting the bribes that any particularly time it's re-routed through their village.  Periodically, local mafia clans murder a few people to update the contracts for plant hire etc. 

[bendan]

1 hour ago, Carnoustie Young Guvnor said:

Scotland's infrastructure is horrifically shite cause we're governed by another country who couldn't give the slightest f**k about us. That's the reality of the situation, if you don't accept that you're just living in denial. Go to Scandinavia and see what they have, there is no reason, absolutely no reason whatsoever, we couldn't have the same.

That's definitely part of it, but the whole culture around construction in this country (planning, funding, training, qualifications, materials, costs) is messed up In Scotland and I'm not sure independence in and of itself would solve most of those problems.

[Carnoustie Young Guvnor]

Just now, bendan said:

That's definitely part of it, but the whole culture around construction in this country (planning, funding, training, qualifications, materials, costs) is messed up In Scotland and I'm not sure independence in and of itself would solve most of those problems.

I don't know enough about that to comment tbf.  Independence wouldn't be a panacea for anything but it makes it much easier to address these issues.  You'll notice it took an SNP government to begin dualling the A9 after forty years of Labour not giving a f**k about it and people dying on Scotland's most dangerous road.

[Snobot]

37 minutes ago, invergowrie arab said:

The A9 is never getting dualled is it?

It has taken about 3 years to do the piece of piss building through fields section  from Stanley to Dukes Pass.

There are bits that will need new bridges over water and others that will need either major rerouting or blasting through cliff faces. 

Think the next bit is 2 sections to join up the long Glen Garry dual carriageway to the DC at Crubenmore which looks relatively straightforward and will mean a pretty long stretch of dualled road. My work were statutory consultees and that was a good while back when they sent out the plans.

No idea how they will do south of Slochd, they seem to have done test bores right out on the top of the hill

[RiG]

50 minutes ago, invergowrie arab said:

The A9 is never getting dualled is it?

It has taken about 3 years to do the piece of piss building through fields section  from Stanley to Dukes Pass.

There are bits that will need new bridges over water and others that will need either major rerouting or blasting through cliff faces. 

The only new bit of road so far is the stretch south of Aviemore and that took forever around two years. The whole stretch of road between Perth and Inverness is (was?) meant to be completed by 2025. No chance that is happening. Of the 11 "stages" one is complete, one in progress and nine in preparation. You could be in a scenario where, if this 2025 target is somehow met, at least half of the A9 will be getting torn up in different areas simultaneously. 

Edited September 14, 2020 by RiG

[Silvio Tattiescone]

6 minutes ago, Carnoustie Young Guvnor said:

I don't know enough about that to comment tbf.  

You do know this is P&B don't you?

[peasy23]

There's a motorway being built in Italy that's taken more than 40 years to complete, it's stil going I think.  Depending on who is soliciting the bribes that any particularly time it's re-routed through their village.  Periodically, local mafia clans murder a few people to update the contracts for plant hire etc. 

Love the Italian system. I remember watching Grand Designs in Italy with a couple who were converting an old house into a boarding house. They wanted to put in a swimming pool but were denied permission because they were outside the village. They finally got permission by bunging a local government official to move the village boundary up the road a bit. No cloak and dagger stuff, the official was up front from the start that if they paid enough they would get permission.

[Cyclizine]

5 hours ago, harry94 said:

Re the Edinburgh Airport rail link, Gateway's location is actually decent enough, I'm sure there are other airports where they have branded train stations that are actually a 5 minute light rail connection to. I think they just need to properly brand it and not take the piss with the additional charge.

That being said, when you have a much faster and cheaper route from Dundee via the national express coach from the centre to the terminal building that runs into all hours of the night, it's a relatively poor solution. You can have the rail station as close as you like but there's no point if the other rail links from other major population centres aren't practical enough.

What's annoying is Aberdeen trains don't stop at Edinburgh Gateway, so if you're heading to the airport you have to head into Haymarket and then get the tram back out. Trains from Inverness, Perth and Dundee however, do stop. There's no direct bus either.

[Sergeant Wilson]

1 hour ago, Jacksgranda said:

Who are they playing?

Harrogate Railway, Darlington Railway Athletic, Leigh RMI (now sadly defunct, so obviously not but included for Railway completeness).

 

[bendan]

6 hours ago, harry94 said:

Re the Edinburgh Airport rail link, Gateway's location is actually decent enough, I'm sure there are other airports where they have branded train stations that are actually a 5 minute light rail connection to. I think they just need to properly brand it and not take the piss with the additional charge.

That being said, when you have a much faster and cheaper route from Dundee via the national express coach from the centre to the terminal building that runs into all hours of the night, it's a relatively poor solution. You can have the rail station as close as you like but there's no point if the other rail links from other major population centres aren't practical enough.

Edinburgh Airport is a good example of how pish Scotland is at this kind of stuff. The airport is actually next to a train line, but hundreds of millions have been spent on piecemeal add-ons to the original terminal rather than building a new one near the train line. We then spend tens of millions extra getting the tram to reach the pishy old terminal (on a slow and twisting route across open ground from South Gyle), and will probably end up paying millions more to build new roads to it. And we'll pay yet more to relocate the Royal Highland Showground at some point because of this piecemeal expansion. Meanwhile the airport is now selling off a big chunk of land near the train line.

Edited September 14, 2020 by bendan

[mac.i]

Not quite so simple. I don’t think there’s much of an issue in the line itself, it wouldn’t cost a huge lot to get stations reopened etc. I believe the problem is lack of any capacity for more trains through from Haymarket to Waverley and then also on the East Coast Main Line section.

This is the reason, there's no space to get into Waverley from the East (South-bound) end or through Princes St Gardens and out at Haymarket.

Trams mooted using it but in addition to the above they had already ordered trams which are not compatible with railway infrastructure (600kv /25,000kv overhead lines to start with....).

The suburban line is sometimes used as a diversion during engineering works.

[bendan]

14 minutes ago, mac.i said:

This is the reason, there's no space to get into Waverley from the East (South-bound) end or through Princes St Gardens and out at Haymarket.

 

I never really understand the problem on the East side - are there that many services coming in from the east?

[Highland Capital]

I'm sure the SSP manifesto in the mid 2000s had a plan to connect the West Highland Line and the Highland Main Line by building a line between Kingussie and Roybridge.  As i mentioned in my early post, it's bizarre that in 2020 the transport links between Inverness and the west Highlands are still pretty poor.

Edit - There was!  In the 2003 manifesto, the SSP proposed a link between Newtonmore and Roybridge.  They also proposed the reopening of the Borders Railway and building exclusive freight lines.

Edited September 14, 2020 by Highland Capital

[vikingTON]

1) Resurrect the Portpatrick railway to connect Stranraer, the south coast towns and Dumfries.

2) Build a Cowal/Loch Fyne railway, with seatrains rolling off enlarged ferries at Gourock-Dunoon and Portavadie/Tarbert. Then run it up to Dalmally via Inveraray and down to Campbeltown as well.

None of this tinpot 'extra lane on the A9 pish': get me megastructures built with kulak labour.

Edited September 18, 2020 by vikingTON